re: An interesting conversation I had with a man from Appalachia at the coffee shop

Its a region that's been poor since America was founded, had a little bit of improvement when Coal was the country's primary power source but didn't develop any other real sustainable industry and thus is on its way back to being poor now. Its never going to get much better unless for some reason the best and the brightest in Appalachia quit leaving the region as soon as they graduate HS and instead either stay in the region for college or return post-grad to establish something. As it is, the top 25% or so of every HS class basically looks for a way out in order to have a better future.